QEGS gifted & talented PE students attend ‘Careers in sport LIVE! Convention’ at The University of Lincoln

On Thursday 11th February ten GCSE PE students along with their class teacher Mr Wilkinson spent the day at The University of Lincoln learning about the diverse careers available to them in sport and health and fitness industries. The students had the opportunity to attend a number of different seminars and workshops run by various professionals from the English Institute of Sport (EIS) including Dr Steve Ingham who has worked with Sir Steve Redgrave and Jessica Ennis-Hill.

As well as theoretical seminars the students also attended a number of different sports science practical workshops, which for many it seems, was the highlight of the day.

Below are accounts from two of the students on the trip:

‘Throughout the day we took part in many new and challenging activities and attended an interactive lecture called ‘innovative technologies and biomechanics’. I found this extremely interesting and would now consider this an opportunity for a degree in Biomechanics. We saw three major technologies within the talk including: Motion Capture, Electromyography and Force Plates. The motion capture was an infra-red based camera system of 500 frames per second. The Electromyography (EMG) used sensitive electrodes than can be placed in the surface of your skin to detect the action potentials when a muscle in contracted. The Force Plates were precision instruments measuring the force and torque that the ground is making on your feet, which ultimately determines the overall change in the bodies velocity.’

By Evie Gregory (Year 10 GCSE PE group)

‘We decided to attend a talk about Biomechanics. It is an area on Sport Science which specialises in the mechanics of human movement, explaining how and why the human body moves in the way which it does. It was fascinating seeing the way which science makes such a big impact in the professional world of sport, eg the tennis racket used by Andy Murray is perfectly designed to suit his body shape and size. They day was concluded with a talk by a development scout from Sunderland AFC, his words were inspirational and motivating but I wish he has spoken more about his profession as his job is so interesting.’